TonThe terrible loneliness of success is the theme of this fascinating movie, which is equivalent to the loneliness of failure in a strange way; it is also about the secret and shameful feeling that failure is a real state of existence, and successful people have to give up this status. Martin Eden is also about capitalism and business and the great promise of the 20th century, that hard work and bold gambling on a certain career path at the beginning of life can allow anyone, no matter how humble their background, to get rich. More importantly, this is about the dizzying promise of business that makes mass communication possible will make art itself profitable: actually writing novels, capturing the imagination of millions of people, can promote you to a heroic celebrity.
Martin Eden is based on Jack London’s 1909 novel. He is the author of The Call of the Wild, and he is also one of the first writers to get rich by writing. Director and co-screenwriter Pietro Marcelo has transplanted the action from California to Naples, but has retained the English name of his hero. The action is interspersed with archival footage, some are obviously in color, and some are taken by Marcelo himself; although they occurred before the First World War, these fantastic archival moments come from any time in this century and can obviously be traced back In the 1960s and 70s, it seemed that Martin’s story had always been a harbinger of popular history. Marcello uses this newsreel collage technique in his work Lucio’s latest documentary, About the singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla.
Luca Marinelli plays the Garden of Eden himself, a bit like a vixen. He is a determined self-learner, earning a living in merchant ships, but dreams of becoming a writer, telling the angry, gloomy story of the miserable life of workers’ lives . When he rescued a famous young man named Arturo (Giustiniano Alpi) and was beaten on the beach (the film made us wonder why Arturo wandered there), Arturo took Eden home Meet his wealthy family. Eden immediately fell in love with Arturo’s elegant and beautiful sister Elena (Jessica Cressi) and began courting from the heart. Eden also started a frustrating business, sending his story to the publisher, who sent it back by mail; he was also attracted by the charismatic socialist Lars Brissenden (card He strongly urged him to be loyal to the class struggle; Eden became obsessed with the social Darwinism and individualism preached by Herbert Spencer.
Inevitably, Eden’s brutal anger against the ruling class was the key driving force for his imagination and the ultimate literary victory. The moment Elena and her family finally decided to approve him after his great success was the same as the moment he rejected her in anger and despair, because he knew little or enjoyed the success he wanted. Confused. Maybe if he gets as rich as his supposed in-laws-in business-he might not be so painful. But literary success is premised on a certain so-called extraordinary wisdom or insight into the human condition, which is like an existential fraud to the Garden of Eden. After all, he made a fortune through the story of poverty.
This film was comparable to Bertolucci’s 1900; I also found myself thinking of Dickens’ David Copperfield and his desire for a career as a writer, as well as William Dorrit’s sudden wealth. There is also Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel “Oil! Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “There Will Be Blood”, Or indeed the story of Charles Foster Kane Citizen Kane by Wells, Based on the life of WR Hearst. Huge wealth has an eternal, toxic obsession, which is the success that most people can dream of, while being pretty sure they will never be able to obtain or deserve such a thing. It is even more effective for a writer who might make such a thing a reality.
There is also an interesting echo Elizabeth Taylor’s 1957 novel “Angel”It tells about a young woman who became a best-selling author with sheer willpower, and like the Garden of Eden, she must angrily and ungratefully reject degrading and lack of artistic job opportunities early in her life. Martin Eden is a sad story about a sad person who lacks the ability to be happy. He was surprised to find that artistic success is as damaged as any other type of success. But tracing his process from tattered to prosperous to annihilation, there is an exciting feeling.
